On August 22nd, 2025, Air Mauritius’ new ATR 72-600 landed at Plaisance Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, located in the capital of Mauritius, from Toulouse on a long delivery flight. Although it had arrived from the French city, where new ATR 72s are usually delivered from the factory, the nine-year-old aircraft had been parked at Toulouse Francazal Airport since October 2023.

This ATR 72-600, with serial number 1316, was manufactured in Toulouse and made its maiden flight on April 4th, 2016. During May of that year, the aircraft served as an ATR 72 demonstrator, being part of the exhibition tour across the United States and Canada called “#ATR4US.” It visited Toronto, Chicago, White Plains, Hyannis, Washington D.C., Charlotte, Dallas, Seattle, and Cincinnati.

TAP

After returning to Europe in mid-May, the ATR began preparations to join TAP Express, the regional and domestic subsidiary of TAP Air Portugal, based at Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon. In July 2016, it was re-registered as CS-DJG and operated with the Portuguese airline until October 2022. Due to the pandemic, between March 2020 and November 2021, it remained grounded at Cascais, a Portuguese airport located west of Lisbon.

Xfly

The Estonian airline, based in Tallinn, added this ATR 72-600 to its fleet in March 2023. It kept the same seating configuration (70 seats in single class) and received the registration ES-ATK.

In September 2015, following the liquidation of the national airline Estonian Air, the Estonian government decided to launch a new flag carrier. Six months later, in March 2016, the name of the new airline, Nordica, was announced, even though it had already commenced operations in November 2015 through BMI Regional, a wet-lease partner.

Shortly before the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in early 2020, the Nordica brand was renamed Xfly, with the aim of further expanding its operations by adding new ATR 72, Embraer 190, and Embraer 195 aircraft to its fleet. In 2021, as a result of the low flight demand caused by the pandemic, Xfly decided to focus on ACMI contracts with other airlines to ensure the continuation of its services.

Xfly, formerly Nordica, had signed a contract with Scandinavian Airlines, which it had maintained since 2017. SAS announced the termination of the contract in November 2024 due to Xfly’s difficult financial situation, as SAS argued that it risked the continuation of the operation because of Xfly’s potential collapse.

The cancellation of this contract resulted in the demise of Xfly, as it lost approximately 90% of its revenue. Xfly filed for bankruptcy and began its liquidation process on November 20th, 2024, and was officially declared bankrupt on January 28th, 2025.

Again TAP

With regard to the ATR in question, TAP had signed an ACMI contract with Xfly between 2022 and 2023, this aircraft being one of three ATR 72s that were part of the operation. After the agreement ended, Xfly withdrew the ATR 72 with serial number 1316 from service, and it was preserved in Toulouse Francazal between October 31st, 2023, and June 5th, 2025. 

As you can see in our database, on May 12th, 2025, June 5th, 2025, and August 9th, 2025, it made three test flights in France, the last one 11 days before departing for Africa.

Air Mauritius

At 07:45 local time on August 20th, 2025, Air Mauritius’ second ATR 72-600, registry 3B-NCU, took off from Francazal Airport bound for Athens, beginning its delivery flight to Mauritius. It arrived in the Greek capital at 12:52 local time, after a 4-hour and 7-minute flight.

Just over two hours later, at 15:13 local time, the ATR 72 departed Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport to Luxor, Egypt, where it landed at 18:42 local time. Three hours and 28 minutes lasted the flight, covering nearly 1,600 kilometers.

The next day, this aircraft took off from LXR at 09:42 local time towards Jeddah, which was the shortest leg of the long delivery flight. On the afternoon of August 21st, after a two-hour stopover at King Abdulaziz International Airport, it departed for Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

Jeddah-Nairobi and Nairobi-Port Louis, the last two legs of the delivery flight, were the longest, lasting almost six hours and around seven hours, respectively. According to our database, Jeddah-Nairobi was 2,556 kilometers, while Nairobi-Port Louis exceeded 3,000 kilometers, or about 1,900 miles.

The final leg was performed on August 22nd, landing at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, the most important airport in Mauritius, at 19:37 local time, coming from Toulouse Francazal via Athens, Luxor, Jeddah, and Nairobi. This delivery flight lasted almost three days, covered more than 10,000 kilometers, and involved around 22 hours of flight time.

The delivery flight

After being unveiled in Port Louis, the aircraft, named Les Mascareignes, entered regular service on August 25th with flight MK120, which departed at 07:51 local time for Rodrigues Island, arriving at 09:13 local time following a flight time of 1 hour and 22 minutes.

Port Louis – Rodrigues Island is the only regular domestic route in Mauritius, operated solely by Air Mauritius with ATR 72-500 and ATR 72-600 aircraft. The distance between the two islands is 600 kilometers, offering around five daily flights on the ATRs, which results in more than 2,500 seats per week provided on each leg.

Air Mauritius is the main and practically only operator on Rodrigues Island. As per our database, Air Austral serves a weekly frequency between Saint-Denis (Reunion) and Plaine Corail Airport on Rodrigues Island, also using ATR 72 aircraft.

Air Mauritius’ flights with ATR 72

Departures from Port Louis

Arrivals to Port Louis

In addition to Rodrigues Island and Saint-Denis, routes operated by ATR 72-500 and ATR 72-600 aircraft, Air Mauritius has an important international network, including other countries in Africa, as well as routes to Asia, Europe, and Oceania.

Route network

Fleet

Regarding the fleet, as you can see in our database, Air Mauritius has 13 aircraft, distributed among Airbus A330-200, Airbus A330-941, Airbus A350-941, ATR 72-500, and ATR 72-600. All of them are based in Port Louis, being these their registrations and age.

Airbus A330-200

• 3B-NCL: 19 years
• 3B-NCM: 18 years

A330-900neo

• 3B-NBU: 6 years
• 3B-NBV: 6 years

Airbus A350-900

• 3B-NBP: 7 years
• 3B-NBQ: 7 years
• 3B-NCE: 5 years
• 3B-NCF: 5 years

ATR 72-500

• 3B-NBG: 23 years
• 3B-NBN: 14 years
• 3B-NBO: 14 years

ATR 72-600

• 3B-NCP: 12 years
• 3B-NCU: 9 years

Cover photo: © Kostas Marmarelis – JetPhotos –  Athens Eleftherios Venizelos Int’l Airport – LGAV – Greece